Larry Stone on wine education, and his new role as ICC Dean of Wine Studies

This morning, the International Culinary Center — originally founded as the French Culinary Institute — announced that wine legends Larry Stone and Scott Carney are its two new Deans of Wine Studies.

For Stone — a master sommelier, and wine legend in his own right given his time at Rubicon and Charlie Trotter’s — it’s a natural extension of a job he’s been doing for years.

“I think this is a role that, in a way, I’ve been training for a long time,” he says.

“I’ve always been involved in educating and training young sommeliers, and I think it’s nice to have a role in a major educational institution and guide the curriculum.”

He continues: “I’ve always admired the idea that chefs should know about food and beverage, because they’re not cooking in a vacuum. It’s very important for someone that wants to work in a restaurant, both as chef or front-0f-house, that they understand both experiences.”

Stone recounts meticulously crafting food and beverage pairings in long meetings with the likes of Charlie Trotter, Traci Des Jardins and Stuart Brioza. In today’s restaurant world, he credits places like Eleven Madison Park and Alinea in leading the way for strong beverage programs. Also on his list is the recently-closed Charlie Trotter’s, where he returned to work for the last several months.

“It was exciting to be in that environment again,” he says, recounting some of his favorite pairings. “It wasn’t necessarily just about the masterpiece of winemaking, but what was a match with the food.”

[Sidenote: What would Stone like to see from Bay Area wine programs? Less emphasis on “exclusively obscure” wines and more support of local wineries.]

Stone and Carney (who ran Gotham Bar & Grill for a decade and has overseen wine education at New York’s ICC for the past year) join a high-profile roster of deans that also include Jacques Pepin, Jacques Torres, Andre Soltner, Alain Sailhac, Alan Richman, Cesare Casella, Jose Andres and the Bay Area’s two reps, David Kinch and Emily Luchetti.

There’s another connection: Dorothy Cann Hamilton, CEO and founder of the ICC, was once an investor in Evening Land Vineyards, where Stone was president not too long ago.